Gustavo Dudamel

BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique Dudamel 4777822

Dudamel is an excellent colorist . . . [his] colors are extremely vivid, and help with something else this conducting is very good at: maintaining great clarity of secondary lines, without muddying the primary melody. This is especially evident in the first movement her. Dudamel and the orchestra maintain a lovely, singing line through material that can otherwise seem merely introductory or transitional. Dudamel takes the movement's "Passions" as seriously as the earlier "dreams", perhaps even more so, with very strong accents and eruptive phrase launches in the more dynamic sections. The second-movement ball scene benefits from very flexible phrasing, and lots of feline portamento in the repeated opening material. The third movement is nicely bucolic . . . Then Dudamel and the LA Phil really take off in the "Marc to the Scaffold", everything crackling with energy and played with a jolly snarl (and repeat) . . . does your iPod need it? I would definitely say so.